Jack Bally's MANNED 1/3 Scale B-17 Nearly Ready To Fly!

Jack Bally's incredible 1/3 scale B-17 next to a Cessna 140! (photo: facebook)

 Some new pictures surfaced last evening on the Bally Bomber facebook page showing Jack Bally's incredbile 1/3 scale B-17 replica fully assembled and sitting next to a Cessna 140. Wow! The mind is really tied up in a knot trying to process what's seen there... it looks like a model but sooo big - but then it looks like a real B-17 but sooo much smaller!

 This project, coming to life in Dixon Illinois, has to rank as one of the most fascinating homebuilt aircraft projects of all time. It's the kind of idea that weird people like me dreram up but rarely does anyone actually follow though. With an estimated 20,000 hours of labor required to build this cute little beast, it's understanable why. With a 34ft 7in wingspan, estimated 1,800 pound weight and four 60hp engines for a total of 240hp, the Bally Bomber is just pure awesome! Be sure to check out the hundreds of pix from the build process along with additional info at TheBallyBomber.com

 The not-so-big cockpit really shows the overall scale!  (photo: theballybomber.com)

 
 The project was started back in 1999 and is just now nearing completion. The airframe is all scratch built (of course) and made out of aluminum. The main gear retracts just like the real B-17, and has proven to be the most complicated part of the project. The engines are the Hirth 3002 4-cylinder 2-stroke that usually have a reduction unit and make about 80hp. Jack chose this engine because of its size... it was small enough to fit inside a properly scaled nacelle. However, to make it fit properly, the reduction unit is removed which will bring the power down around 60hp each, with the engines spinning the 46.4" diameter props at about 3,300 rpm.

One of four 2-stroke Hirth 3002 (formerly F-30) engines  (photo: theballybomber.com)

 Even though the airplane looks finished, I noticed in a facebook comment last night that they say there's still some wiring, plumbing and detail work yet to complete. It would appear that the first flight is still off in the future a bit. Mostly that means that there's little hope of seeing the Bally Bomber at Oshkosh in a few weeks. There's little doubt in my mind that whenever this fabulous piece of work gets to Oshkosh, she'll be the Queen for the entire week!

 The accuracy in the scale shaping is simply fantastic!  (photo: theballybomber.com)

 The accuracy of the shapes and scaling look excellent on this project. I remember back in the 70's there were several scaled-down military one-of-a-kind replicas, but most all failed to get the profiles, proportions, or prop scaling correct... the Bally Bomber appears to be getting it done right. Bravo!

The amazing Bally Bomber is almost ready to fly!  (photo: theballybomber.com)

 
 Can you even imagine how cool it would be to see this 1/3 scale B-17 in the air! No doubt the videos of the first flight will be a huge internet sensation... stay tuned to the Bally Bomber facebook page for updates on the first flight... this might be as big a deal as the full-scale Mosquito last fall!

Flitzer Homebuilt Biplane: The Perfect Boredom Fighter!

Totally non-authentic and perfectly awesome: the Flitzer biplane (photo: flitzerbiplane.com)

 Back in the late 70's a homebuilt airplane emerged that had a WWI feel to it and was small and relatively easy to build... it was called the Boredom Fighter. I was in the process of building a Pober Pixie at the time (that I started in 1978 when I was a junior in High School) and I remember thinking that the Boredom Fighter was a great concept, but the reality of the design never really clicked with me. Then this morning I get an email from a friend asking if I'ver ever posted anything about the Flitzer Biplane from the UK. Hmm, I've never even heard of it (I can't know everything!) but when I checked it out I realized that the Flitzer Biplane is the PERFECT realization of the Boredom Fighter concept!

 There's no connection between the Boredom Fighter and the Flitzer, but what I see in the Flitzer is a perfect balance of faux WWI styling along with a small, primarily wood airframe that also is a great little flying machine. It's pretty much everything that the Boredom Fighter was meant to be but never really attained. The Flitzer was design by Lynn Williams in the UK, and from what I can tell that was about 10 years ago. A real emphasis was put on designing a stout airframe with really good flying characteristics. With an empty weight of around 500 pounds, this little 18' wingspan retro fighter was designed to be powered with a VW engine. With that in mind, its easy to imagine a variety of powerplants in the 50-80hp range being acceptable in a Flitzer.

Small and VW powered, the Flitzer biplane is cheap retro thrills  (photo: facebook)

 
 There's a good resource website run by a fan of the design (flitzerbiplane.com) with info on the history of the Flitzer plus a wide range of additional info. The Flitzer Variants page there is a great place to get the basics figured out while also planting the seeds for some serious infatuation of this homebuilt that's perfectly suited to individual personalization. You'll also find Lynn Williams' email address near the top of that page in case you're interested in finding out about buying a set of construction plans.

 If I had the time and money I'd start up a network of resources here in the US to encourage a large squadron of these little weekend warriors... I think it would be especially well-suited to a group of people getting together and building 4 or 5 of them, that way you have a built-in network of 'help and encouragement' along the difficult path of making it all the way thru a homebuilt project.

 In fact, if I had known about the Flitzer back in 2009 when I started the AirPigz Project VP (modified Volksplane) project, I'd probably have me an unfinished Flitzer in the garage right now! Btw, PVP remains unfinished due to my nagging financial recovery issues stemming from the 08/09 economy collapse, but I'm getting closer to the day when I'll finally have that chapter of my life closed (without filing for bankruptcy : )

 Anyway, the Flitzer is a homebuilt design worthy of consideration for anyone looking for a reactively easy to build head-turner that won't cost you an arm-and-a-leg. It's one of the most creative designs I've ever seen to capture great nostalgic lines and a wonderful retro-war look while also being affordable and really fun to fly. Now I just need to figure out if I'm more obsessed with the Skyote or the Flitzer! #littlebiplanesforever

Flitzer Biplane yahoo group

Flitzer Biplane facebook page 

Flitzer Biplane by Australian Mark Crawford: check out his Flitzer construction website

Tom Cruise Turns 51 Today (With Top Gun Music Video!)

This is a guest post... Author Bio: Alex Smith is a freelance film and television blogger for Direct2TV.com who has been a huge fan of Tom Cruise, Top Gun and things that go fast since childhood. He enjoys writing celebrity profiles and reviews of new movie releases as well as retrospectives on films from the 1970s and 80s, and riding his motorcycle (it’s the closest he’ll get to piloting an F-14). He lives in Washington, D.C.

Tom Cruise: Aviation Ambassador? 

 Tom Cruise is celebrating another birthday (he’s 51 today), and he continues to be one of Hollywood’s top stars after more than three decades in the film business. It all started for Cruise with the movie Taps in 1981, with his first leading role coming just two years later in Risky Business with its iconic “dancing in underpants” scene. Since then, Cruise has appeared almost exclusively in big-budget, critically and financially successful movies, including Rain Man, A Few Good Men, War of the Worlds and the Mission: Impossible franchise.

 But perhaps Cruise’s best known role, and certainly one that established the persona that has allowed him to essentially play “himself” in many subsequent action flicks, came when he played Maverick in the 1986 hit Top Gun. This is the role that not only propelled Cruise to the top of A-list but also seems to have put a love of aviation in his blood, and arguably helped popularize and glamorize flying for much of the general public as well.

The amazing Grumman F-14 Tomcat - anytime baby!  (photo: wikimedia)

 
 When Cruise was preparing for the role of Maverick, he was taken up for three separate rides in the back passenger seat of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat that his character would fly in the film, a taste of jet-powered flight (and the view afforded by the Tomcat’s bubble canopy) that must have been a peak life experience even for a rich and famous actor. The first flight reportedly resulted in him vomiting, but he handled the other two flights well, and some actual in-flight footage filmed using F-14 cockpits can be seen in the finished movie.

 
F-14's and ground crew on a carrier in 2002  (photo: U.S. Navy)

  Top Gun was originally inspired by an article in the May 1983 issue of “California” magazine that described the training, activities and culture at the Navy’s Top Gun School for fighter pilots. The movie itself pays homage to the real training facility it portrays in several ways:

Click to read more ...

Why Oshkosh Matters (With CoolPix Marathon - 19 Hi-Res Images)

(click pic for hi-res)  Ray Hegy's El Chuparosa at Oshkosh 1970 (see original post)

 Oshkosh 2013 is fast approaching (July 29 - Aug 4), and I'm as excited as ever to be planning to attend. I was there in 1970 (as a 9 year old) when the very first Oshkosh took place at Wittman Field in beautiful Wisconsin. The annual EAA fly-in and convention was held in Rockford Illinois prior to Oshkosh and I was even at the last one of those in 1969. I've missed a handful of the events over the years, but I've attended well over 30 of them since that picture above of Ray Hegy's El Chuparosa was taken.

 Oshkosh has changed a lot over the years, but in the ways that really matter, it hasn't really changed at all. It's still people (lots and lots of people) who are in love with aviation gathering together to share that love with each other. It's goodness, discipline, ingenuity, and achievement all rolled into a week of learning, sharing, and enjoying. There's just nothing else like it... no other tool we have that does so much good for the world of general and sport aviation. That's why I believe that Oshkosh truly matters.

 I'm well aware that many people have frustrations at times with the EAA and the way Oshkosh is run, and while I've had the same kinds of frustrations going back even into the 1970's, I'm as convinced as ever that the EAA ultimately does a huge amount of good for those of us who love to fly. I can't imagine any other organization (or new group of people) who could, or would do better (or even as well) at fostering a genuine love for flying. So I hope you'll join me in being a big supporter of what Oshkosh does for us all... come to Oshkosh this year and be amazed, entertained, educated, and impressed. But please don't come expecting Oshkosh to do all that TO you, instead, come to Oshkosh and BE PART OF that process. Give, and share, and receive too. It's the human interactions that truly make Oshkosh the beautiful thing that it is.

 To celebrate some of the great avgeekery of Oshkosh, here's an extensive collection of CoolPix images I've captured since 2009 to get you primed and ready for the world's greatest aviation event. I hope you enjoy! Oh, and you might notice that I never ever call the event A**V******, it's Oshkosh to me and always will be. I look forward to the day when that ad agency concocted word is dropped from the EAA vocabulary. And hey, maybe they should go back to a logo that looks more like tho old one too : )

(click pic for hi-res)  Pitcairn Autogiro at Oshkosh 2009  (see original post)

(click pic for hi-res)  Airbus A380 preparing to depart Oshkosh 2009  (see original post)

Click to read more ...

Video: Thom Richard And Precious Metal Prepare To Impress At The 50th Anniversary Reno Air Races!

 The guys at LiveAirShowTV put together a great interview piece on Thom Richard and his Rolls Royce Griffon powered P-51 Precious Metal. With the 63 mph speed increase seen at Reno 2012 from the updated prop design, Precious Metal became a real contender for Unlimited Gold... but there can be quite a distance between being a contender and being a champion.

 For 2013, the 50th anniversary of the Reno Air Races, Thom and a crew of friends and volunteers have been making significant upgrades to PM in the quest for another big increase in race speed. With all the work that's being done it's very realistic to think that Precious Metal will be right in the thick of things, even if Strega comes back to defend her winning streak that stretches back to 2008.

 Don't forget you can watch the races live this September via LiveAirShowTV and you can also keep an eye on the progress of Thom and the airplane via facebook.com/airrace. This is a great time to be paying attention to the world's fastest motor sport!

Precious Metal evening engine run at Reno 2012 (see hi-res version here)

The Adventures Of The 19XX: Online Comic In Dieselpunk Style (With Airplanes!)

Screenshot of the online comic viewer for the very cool: The Adventures of the 19XX

 I first learned about the online comic known as The Adventures of the 19XX about a year ago when I stumbled across the 19XX facebook page. I knew instantly that I'd love it because it had an awesome graphic style AND it includes the use of familiar Golden Age flying machines. Tho it's not a comic dedicated to this incredible era of aircraft, you'll often find them woven into this adventure story set between WWI and WWII and presented in a sweet dieselpunk style. Here's the comic overview as presented by the man behind it all, Paul Roman Martinez:

Somewhere in the 20th century…not long after the end of the Great War, those who were capable of hearing it, received a revelation… another Great War was coming. This coming war would push the limits of technology, split the atom to create the power of a small star, and bring together forces more evil than the world has ever known. That this war would happen was man’s fatal destiny, but the outcome of the war and the details of it were not as clear. A weak League of Nations banded together to form a group. A group capable of doing what those countries could not. A group of adventurers, explorers, and scientists from every allied country to search the globe and fight a battle far from the public eye. This group is The 19XX, all the public has been told is that they are fighting for all of the good in humanity to survive the nineteen hundreds and beyond.

Their mission is to track down every powerful relic, every modern and undiscovered weapon, and every magic incantation ever uttered on the earth’s crust, because the forces of evil responsible for the next Great War would be searching for the very same thing. Nothing in the realm of the tangible or intangible is off limits when the fate of the entire world is at stake. (19XX will be updated every weeks on Mondays and Fridays, with extra stuff uploaded now and then as well)

 You can also learn more about both the comic and Paul in this recent artist spotlight at FreshMonkeyFiction.com.

Beautiful airship print available in the online store at adventuresofthe19xx.storenvy.com

 In addition to being a free online comic that's now into its third book, the 19XX generates revenue to support Paul's work thru a store full of really cool products. Art prints like the airship one above really capture the awesome designs of the era. Paul has a good eye for 'cool' but he also does a great job of being true to the flying machines, so avgeeks should have nothing to complain about when they buy the printed versions of the comic, or maybe a t-shirt or canvas bag with printed graphics. It's all just really really cool stuff!

One of the current t-shirts design currently available thru the 19XX online store

 I'm especially excited about Paul's graphics because I've worked out a deal with him to do the actual airplane artwork for the FLY Energy Bar packages that I'm developing. The packaging for a product is such an important part of its success, and I have worked hard to create a truly fabulous design that includes Golden Age of air racing aircraft for each individual flavor... but I don't have the level art artistic skills to draw the actual airplane part of the design. Paul will be drawing up a Gee Bee R2 for me before long so that I can have a complete package design to share for the upcoming kickstarter.com campaign for FLY Energy Bar. I think you're gonna be very impressed!

 So please go check out the comic at the19xx.com and then be sure to check out all the hot products in the online store... you're cool factor is sure to increase when you enter the world of The Adventures of the 19XX!

Video: FIFI From The Flight Deck - Takeoff At Fort Worth

(check out my hi-res OSH11 wide-angle view of the FIFI cockpit thru the side window)

 This video is from back in 2011 but it's a really great cockpit view (from the observers seat) of a takeoff in the CAF B-29 FIFI. It's an awesome avgeek treat to get this inside view of the B-29, especially since the cockpit design makes it all so open and extremely visible with all that plexi. But I hope that seeing this the day after Memorial Day also helps us to remember that the military aircraft that we so often love are really tools of war. A young B-29 crew heading out on a dangerous mission probably had a lot more to be thinking about than how cool their B-29 was.

 The people who are willing to serve in the military, or accepted the call to serve during a draft (literally putting their life on the line) are special people... and they are the ones who have preserved our freedom. It just seems to me that we should all start our day with a clear understanding of the sacrifices that allow us to be a free country, and in turn I would hope that we would all work harder to stand up in our own ways to see that freedom preserved.

Screenshot: cockpit view of the B-29 FIFI on takeoff roll (observer in bombardier seat)

Video: Memorial Day 2013 - May We Never Forget Their Sacrifice

May we never forget the sacrifice of those willing to fight and die for our freedom

Video: Spend Some Quality Time With The X-47B (Carrier Suitability Testing)

 The video of the X-47B making the first-ever unmanned-aircraft launch from an aircraft carrier a few days was very impressive, but the one above, released a few days ago by Northrop Grumman, is also great because it gives you a much more in-depth look at both the X-47B itself and the rock-solid flying characteristics of this amazing unmanned aircraft. It's a compilation of the work done this Spring conducting the 'carrier suitability testing'.

 The video starts with the unfolding of its wings and includes many views of ground handling (including the use of the arm-mounted Control Display Unit [CDU] for deck maneuvering), great views of the control surfaces deflecting, and lots of takeoff and landing sequences (including shore-based catapult) showing how stable the X-47B is in all phases of flight. You also get some great air to air views of this most-unusual flying machine.

 And while we are getting used to aircraft that don't have vertical surfaces for stability, stop for a minute and wrap your head around how much is really going on every single second this thing is in the air to create such excellent stability without them.

 It's all a very impressive piece of work!

 
Video screenshot of the very unusual X-47B and its shadow on landing

Poll: Awesome Or Ugly? The 5 Engine, Short SC.1 VTOL (1950's)

Short SC.1 - Britain's first VTOL demonstrator aircraft - first flown in 1957 (1958 VTOL)

 I admit that I'm fascinated by experimental military aircraft from the 1950's... it was such an incredible time of let's learn everything we can! This unusual looking jet, the Short SC.1, is definitely one that fascinates me. It's Britain's first VTOL testbed, built by Short in Belfast in the last 1950's.

 With a delta wing, fixed landing gear and awesome 'spaceship-of-the-future' bubble windshield, the SC.1 was first built with just one centerline mounted Rolls Royce RB108 turbojet engine to allow for conventional takeoff and landing tests. The first flight of this version was on April 2, 1957. The 2nd and only other SC.1 was fitted with four more RB108's mounted vertically in the middle of the fuselage and made its first tethered vertical flight on May 26, 1958. By October of 1958 it had made its first completely free vertical flight. The first vertical to forward-flight transition was made in 1960.

 With fixed landing gear and 5 turbojet engines, the SC.1 was a very unusual jet!

 The SC.1 had a remarkable career as a VTOL testbed and both examples remain today, the first aircraft on display at London's South Kensington Science Museum and the second at Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Northern Ireland. However, it is important to note that the second aircraft did crash in 1963 due to a control malfunction killing the pilot J.R. Green. The aircraft was rebuilt and testing continued thru the late 1960's. All SC.1 testing ended in 1971.

 The SC.1 provided much valuable data on vertical flight and control, tho the use of 4 vertically-mounted engines for lift and just one for forward thrust proved to be an inefficient method... the Hawker Siddeley P.1127 (predecessor to the Hawker Harrier) first flown in 1960, proved that one large engine could be used to provide vectored thrust for both vertical and forward flight.

 I'm voting 'awesome' in the poll, but what do you think of the Short SC.1?